She-Hulk (Jennifer Susan Walters) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 (cover-dated February 1980). Following an injury, Walters received an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, and acquired a milder version of his Hulk condition. As such, Walters becomes a large, powerful green-hued version of herself while still largely retaining her personality. In particular, she retains her intelligence and emotional control, although like Hulk, she still becomes stronger if enraged. In later issues of the comics, her transformation is permanent.
She-Hulk has been a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, the Defenders, Fantastic Force and S.H.I.E.L.D. As a highly skilled lawyer, she has served as legal counsel to various superheroes on numerous occasions.
She-Hulk is scheduled to make her live-action debut in She-Hulk, an upcoming television series as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+.
Character History
Information Credited from Marvel.com
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| Savage She-Hulk #1 - Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk's first appearance in Marvel Comics. |
Jennifer Walters was raised in Los Angeles by her father Sheriff Morris Walters and her mother Elaine Banner-Walters, who died in a suspicious accident. During this time, she became close with her cousin Bruce Banner while spending summers in Ohio. She went to UCLA’s law school and became a lawyer to fight baddies like her dad.
We first meet Jen while she’s investigating the bad dudes who killed her mom including Nick Trask, whom Jen was defending after he framed his personal guard for murder. Trask put the hit out on her and she gets shot. But Bruce happened to be visiting from New York City, and when Jen needs an immediate blood infusion, he was the one to help out – turning her into She-Hulk.
In issue #2, the book immediately gets weirder! Jen spends her early days as a lawyer trying not to get pissed off in court and splitting out of her clothes and murdering her opposing counsel. Initially, she can’t control her powers but in time, she is able to keep her Jen Walters brain while in her She-Hulk form. Things are complicated because her dad is a cop and she is becoming a vigilante – whether she really wants to or not. She spends most of the run having awkwardness with her dad and honing her control of the She-Hulk inside.
Jen makes some key connections during this time with Man-Wolf AKA John Jameson and Patsy Walker in issue #13. Her friends Zapper and Richard Rory both sought her attention and helped her out. She eventually chooses Zapper’s dapper ‘80s ‘stache and large head of curly locks.
Almost every issue of SHE-HULK introduces a new D-lister, like Howard the Duck and Man-Thing. It’s delightfully weird.
The series wraps up with She-Hulk reconnecting with her father who didn’t know she was She-Hulk and realizing that she loves Zapper.
DRAMA FOR YOUR MAMA: SHE-HULK IN THE AVENGERS AND THE FANTASTIC FOUR
She-Hulk starts to move from her dramatic origin to being an important part of Marvel’s biggest Super Hero teams. But it seems like she really can’t escape ongoing relationship drama. She joins the Avengers in 1982 in AVENGERS #221-242 by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, and Bob Hall alongside a super team of artists.
Janet Van Dyne AKA the Wasp puts an ad in the paper asking for the female heroes to find her: Black Widow, Dazzler, Invisible Woman, Spider-Woman, and She-Hulk. On the way there, Jen rear-ends Clint Barton in her pink convertible, setting up animosity between the two of them and a lot of back-and-forth.
In AVENGERS #228, Shocker shocks Jen so badly that she can’t hulk out – until Clint talks smack and she slaps him until she hulks out again. Go figure, around issue #242 Hawkeye proposes having “detached members” who are on call instead of full-time and She-Hulk says “Indeed!” and disappears from following issues.
She-Hulk is the muscle for the Avengers and largely the comic relief. She runs around in cut-off shorts, lifting up cars and huge machines like they weigh nothing, and then dives into fights with fists flying. Plus, she’s got mad swag. She’s really sexy, single, and loving her life. This run is especially important because She-Hulk’s flirty, fancy-free personality really starts to take shape in the absence of dad/boy drama.
She-Hulk later pops in 1984’s SECRET WARS. This is the beginning of her ongoing battle with Titania, who immediately wants to fight her after being turned into a buff lady by Doctor Doom. She-Hulk tends to fight other big ladies like Titania and Thundra, but from the beginning she’s really just always been fighting the weird guys like Mole Man, Doctor Bong, a real ever-changing rogues’ gallery that is delightfully strange.
Janet Van Dyne AKA the Wasp puts an ad in the paper asking for the female heroes to find her: Black Widow, Dazzler, Invisible Woman, Spider-Woman, and She-Hulk. On the way there, Jen rear-ends Clint Barton in her pink convertible, setting up animosity between the two of them and a lot of back-and-forth.
In AVENGERS #228, Shocker shocks Jen so badly that she can’t hulk out – until Clint talks smack and she slaps him until she hulks out again. Go figure, around issue #242 Hawkeye proposes having “detached members” who are on call instead of full-time and She-Hulk says “Indeed!” and disappears from following issues.
She-Hulk is the muscle for the Avengers and largely the comic relief. She runs around in cut-off shorts, lifting up cars and huge machines like they weigh nothing, and then dives into fights with fists flying. Plus, she’s got mad swag. She’s really sexy, single, and loving her life. This run is especially important because She-Hulk’s flirty, fancy-free personality really starts to take shape in the absence of dad/boy drama.
She-Hulk later pops in 1984’s SECRET WARS. This is the beginning of her ongoing battle with Titania, who immediately wants to fight her after being turned into a buff lady by Doctor Doom. She-Hulk tends to fight other big ladies like Titania and Thundra, but from the beginning she’s really just always been fighting the weird guys like Mole Man, Doctor Bong, a real ever-changing rogues’ gallery that is delightfully strange.
This is also when Ben Grimm AKA the Thing leaves Earth for Battleworld (where he can stay in his human form) so he recruits She-Hulk to be the muscle for the Fantastic Four while he’s away. She-Hulk returns to Earth in FANTASTIC FOUR #265-300, which was written and drawn by John Byrne, one of the most iconic creators of the character. During this time, Sue Storm is pregnant with Franklin, so She-Hulk doing double duty as a foil to Reed Richards and punching stuff.
Around this time, She-Hulk meets Wyatt Wingfoot and there is CHEMISTRY! He keeps popping up from time to time until they start dating. So, remember when Johnny Storm wanted to marry Alicia Masters? Well, She-Hulk was PISSED because Johnny also asks Ben to be his best man. She-Hulk and Thing fight in a construction spot until he feels better. Jonny and Alicia get married and since Ben is back, Jen’s out!
SHE-HULK LOVES TO HULK! (PLUS SHE IS THE ULTIMATE FUNNY GIRL)
She-Hulk returns to the Avengers in AVENGERS #278-297 by Walt Simonson and John Buscema. This is pretty much a continuation of the previous run, but fun things happen, like she encourages Captain Marvel AKA Monica Rambeau to lead the Avengers. But she ultimately leaves because she feels weird about the stuff she did while controlled by Nebula (a different one) and Doctor Druid. She exits with the Avengers’ blessing.
In 1989’s SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK by John Byrne Bob Wiacek and Glynis Oliver (with a few issues by Steve Gerber and Bryan Hitch), she fully embraces her comedic nature. She starts breaking the fourth wall on the cover of issue #1. When we meet her, she’s enslaved by the Ringmaster, but she breaks free from his mind control and heads back to New York City. Janet Van Dyne hooks Shulkie up with her apartment while she’s away visiting Hank Pym in Los Angeles. Jen also starts a new job – while stuck in her big and green form.
This is where she meets her new bestie Louise “Weezi” Mason AKA the Blonde Phantom from the old days of Timely Comics. They both work for District Attorney Towers, and we get a look into Weezi’s past when she and Mr. Mason got married and grew older while not in comics; now she’s a middle-aged widow ready for adventure.
Jen often pulls in her editors, creators, etc. into the actual comic book as the run goes on, like when she nearly jumped out of the pages to fight John Byrne for making DA Towers married in the book. Among Shulkie’s other fun times, she fantasizes about Hercules and we see some flames with Wyatt Wingfoot. She also comes across a ‘59 Dodge convertible with space travel capabilities courtesy of some friends from space. Jen continues to help out the DA during the day, and she and Weezi travel the world fighting weird villains and having adventures.
The covers for this series are utterly fantastic and capitalize on She-Hulk’s humor, with lampoons of sexy covers accompanied by her realistic commentary. Editor Renee Witterstaetter later appears to chat with her on the page. The series ended because John Bryne “died by tripping over a subplot.”
BALANCE IS BEST FOR SHULKIE
In 2004’s SHE-HULK by Dan Slott and artists Juan Bobillo and Paul Pelletier (who also kicked off the 2005 that was taken over by Peter David and more artists), She-Hulk gets kicked out of Avengers Mansion for too many overnight guests. The reason cited was that they were security risks, plus she gets fired for causing a mistrial at her law office and photocopying her butt – on a color copier.
Jen she moves out and gets a job working for Goodman (Martin), Lieber (Stan), Kurtzberg (Kirby), and Holliway – her boss, who thinks She-Hulk is a liability and wants Jen in the courtroom. Jen doesn’t love being in her vulnerable form, plus she is faced with working with (and against) fellow litigator Mallory Book. She also enlists the help of Augustus “Pug” Pugliese who is into her. The series explores her reclaiming her power in human form and fighting for super-powered clients who aren’t heroes and need help. She also ends up eloping with Man-Wolf, her on-and-off squeeze for ages. This run is delightful because we get our classic flirty and fabulous Shulkie, who has really heartfelt drama helping super people who don’t want their powers.
More She-Hulk highlights include the Contest of Champions, when Gamora trains her. She also becomes roommates with Lyra, She-Hulk from another universe. In Charles Soule’s 2014 run of SHE-HULK, she gets to use super detective skills. She was also a big part of PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT.
Then CIVIL WAR II happens – the initial conflict with Thanos leaves her in a coma. She wakes up in 2016’s HULK by Mariko Tamaki and Nico Leon, is grey and royally screwed up, dealing with her lingering issues and watching baking videos to cope.
Now she’s back in green and buffer than ever!
You can catch up with She-Hulk on Marvel Unlimited in all the issues mentioned here, plus she’s been fighting alongside the Avengers again!
Alternate Versions:
These are some of my favorite alternate universe versions from She-Hulk over the years, but there's many more to seek out. I just limited this article to covering the ones below.
Ultimate She-Hulk
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| Betty Ross transforming into the Ultimate Marvel universe's She-Hulk. |
In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Betty Ross is still the daughter of General "Thunderbolt" Ross. She was the college roommate of Janet van Dyne. She earned a degree in communications at Berkeley and dated Bruce Banner until his failed attempts at cracking the super soldier problem turned him into the Hulk.
When the Ultimates were assembled, she became their Director of Communications/Public Relations Officer. After being spurned by Betty, Bruce responded by injecting himself with a version of the Hulk formula that incorporated the recently discovered Captain America's blood, and went on a rampage as the Hulk, during which he killed more than 800 civilians. During his trial, Betty declared her love for Bruce, who was eventually convicted, and sentenced to death, but Bruce escaped the nuclear bomb intended to execute him by turning into the Hulk and escaping. Bruce returned during the Ultimates 2 miniseries after Fury, the President of the United States, Washington D.C. and New York had been captured by the Liberators. Bruce, now exhibiting greater control over his transformations, helped repel the Liberators, and Betty was seen tending to an exhausted Bruce after the battle with the Liberators and Loki in Washington, D.C.
In the Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk miniseries, Nick Fury sends Wolverine to find and kill the Hulk, but their battle was interrupted by She-Hulk after Betty injected herself with the Hulk serum. Fury reveals that S.H.I.E.L.D. is working to keep her transformations under control, and has her imprisoned in the Cube.
Lyra (Daughter of Hulk and Thundra)
She was a pivotal player during the Fall of the Hulks storyline, along with Red She-Hulk (cited below), but after Marvel Comics current reboot to their comics continuity, she hasn't been seen much. I thought she was a fun diversion from the average gamma-powered females at the time, but boy, did Marvel Comics' get far too many "Hulks" in a short period following that World War Hulk event. Lyra differs from her father in a major way - she becomes weakened if she gets mad. Instead, she practices a mastery of her emotions for she can always remain in check of them for this wouldn't affect her in battle.
Red She-Hulk (Betty Ross)
During the "Fall of the Hulks" storyline, Betty Ross is revealed to have been resurrected by the Leader and MODOK at the urgings of their new ally, her father Thunderbolt Ross, who had previously kept her body in cryonic stasis. She also underwent the same process that had turned her father into the Red Hulk, which granted her superhuman physical power. The now-villainous Doc Samson also helps Leader brainwash Betty into an extremely confused and aggressive state. Ross' allies, aware of his intentions to betray them, send Betty, as the "Red She-Hulk", to help assassinate her father, who is hunting the mercenary Domino, after she witnesses him transform from his human form. Their encounter ends with Red She-Hulk kicking Red Hulk off the Empire State Building.
After Ross fakes his own death, Betty also appears as herself at his "funeral", accompanied by a Life Model Decoy of Glenn Talbot to constantly monitor and control her, and expresses distrust of Bruce due to his recent marriage to Caiera on Sakaar and his subsequent attack on Manhattan.
During the "World War Hulks" storyline, after Skaar stabs her with his sword, the new She-Hulk reverts to her human form, exposing her true identity. Betty explains how she was brought back to life, and asks that Bruce allow her to die. But when Samson arrives, Betty's anger at his betrayal transforms her back into Red She-Hulk, thus healing her injuries. Now once again in control of her own mind, Betty (as Red She-Hulk) helps Bruce/Hulk to reconcile with his son Skaar. When Bruce gains the upper hand in the ensuing final battle against Ross, Betty becomes worried for her father, which, combined with her heightened aggression when transformed, leads to conflict with the original She-Hulk, who prevails. After Ross is defeated and imprisoned, Betty convinces Bruce to grant her father an opportunity for rehabilitation and redemption.
She-Dragon
Amy Belcher, also known as Sensation and mostly as She-Dragon, is a fictional 'superfreak' and later police officer created by Erik Larsen for his series Savage Dragon as a She-Hulk-like female counterpart for the series' main character The Dragon.
Amy Belcher first appeared in the Savage Dragon Vs Savage Megaton Man special as a villainess named Sensation. At the time, Amy was part of a low-key group called the Nixed Men, all of whom were parodies of characters that had been written/drawn and in most cases re-vamped by John Byrne, their name a parody of his own self-created title for Dark Horse Comics The Next Men. Amy was a parody of She-Hulk, whom Byrne worked on for some time in her own series The Sensational She-Hulk. Sensation noted that she had been cast aside by her creator Johnny Redbeard, a villain later used in Freak Force, because after her transformation she performed prat-falls for people from another dimension. Along with this confession, Sensation/She-Dragon occasionally talks to observing entities only she can perceive, a common habit of She-Hulk.
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| She-Dragon in the Savage Dragon cartoon series. |
Obviously, She-Dragon isn't one of Marvel Comics' creations, but you have to be blind to see that she was CLEARLY inspired by Shulkie, especially during her one-shot solo comic book appearance, even down to the same cover as the infamous John Byrne run. I had initially grew aware of She-Dragon back during the Savage Dragon's short-lived animated series over on the USA Network (something I need to revisit with adult eyes actually...) but loosely followed her exploits over the years. I made it a personal priority to make sure that I snatched up a copy of her first (and only as of this posting) issue of her solo comic. I had to make sure to mention her in this article to avoid having to do a separate piece on her later down the road.
Appearances in Media:
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 | Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
I remember losing my shit when Shulkie was first announced for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 when their character trailers were going around to reveal the roster every week by IGN. It was even better that she was being voiced by Maria Canals-Barrera AKA Hawkgirl and Fire from Justice League/Justice League Unlimited and Paulina from Danny Phantom. I'm sure DC/Warner Bros. were pissed that she took that role over reprising the role as Hawkgirl for the original Injustice title, not that I'm complaining. I thought she did an excellent job as the character.
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| All of She-Hulk's alternate colors and costumes in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. |
I'm just still disappointed in myself that I can't play the character nor this game well for beans though. At least I can live through Peter "Combofiend" Rosas seeing him play both Shulkie and Nathan Spencer (another character in that game I liked who Jen goes on a date with in her Arcade Mode ending) insanely well when he was playing the game competitively at the height it's popularity.
The Incredible Hulk (1982 & 1996 Animated Series)
She-Hulk appears in The Incredible Hulk (1982 animated series), voiced by Victoria Carroll. She first appears in the episode, "Enter: She-Hulk".
She-Hulk appears in The Incredible Hulk (1996 animated series), voiced by Lisa Zane in season one and Cree Summer in season two. Although she appears in only two episodes in season one, She-Hulk takes center stage in season two to the point that the new season renamed the series The Incredible Hulk and the She-Hulk.
I credited both Cree Summer and Lisa Zane over on Twitter a few months ago as the ones who both "lit the fire" of my own She-Hulk fandom from their portrayals of the character in the 1996 series. Those were the first two iterations that I was exposed to in terms of animation as I didn't see the 1982 version until decades after the fact.
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes
I think this is one of the most popular clips to even come out of that show, given the open auditions that the Fantastic Four were holding for new members in the absence of The Thing. Too bad Shulkie didn't stick around past this single appearance though in this episode "The Cure". For those wondering, she was voiced by Canadian voice actress and singer, Rebecca Shoichet.
Super Hero Squad
Katee Sackoff would lend her voice to She-Hulk in this series and would constantly be the foil to both Hulk and especially Iron Man in later episodes, constantly asking how come he didn't call her back after their date, only to cause a nervous reaction to pop up from her flirting. I got a good laugh at this for what it was worth - much like almost everything from the SHS portrayals of these beloved Marvel Comics characters.
Even though I tend to knock a lot of "kid friendly" comedy adaptations of classic cartoons/superheroes, I can't knock SHS too much for the fact that this show actually remembered who Screaming Mimi was BEFORE she was Songbird on the Thunderbolts. That being said, Ms. Marvel's voice still sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me when I hear her speak in this cartoon.
Hulk & The Agents of SMASH
In this series, She-Hulk would be part of the Hulk's team of gamma-powered heroes and act as the team's resident pilot and token female. To this day, I'm surprised that they never shoehorned Red She-Hulk in this series when they already had Red Hulk in here along with so many plots featuring the Leader. It would have been easy to get her in here in some capacity. I mean c'mon, both Ultimate Spider-Man and Disney's Spider-Man managed to get majority of the mainstays from the Spider-Verse into their series but they couldn't show the same amount of care for this series? Oh well.
She was voiced by Buffy the Vampire series alum Eliza Dushku in this series.
Why Do I LOVE Her So Much?
Trekkies, or rather Star Trek fanboys, have always had their fascinations with green alien women, and I suppose that She-Hulk is mine in that degree. The duality of the Incredible Hulk with his Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde nature had always had intrigued me in the past, but when Rule 63 kicked into full gear for Marvel Comics in that regard, you can guarantee that my interest went into full gear. I'll never forget checking out a copy of Marvel : The Characters and Their Universe from my local library time and time again, just to read up on the numerous characters at Marvel Comics' disposal growing up. Color my surprise when I found out that there was a female Hulk. Between that and hunting down the John Byrne run of her comic book series at the local comic book shop, I can confess being my initial fond memories of being infatuated with this character.
John Byrne's work on her second solo series (The Sensational She-Hulk era as most refer to it as) ranks up there as some of my favorite adventures of hers, but I have come to admire her original series with her struggles to juggle her life as a lawyer and the stresses that come with that job and her newfound identity as the Savage She-Hulk. People love to talk about female empowerment when it comes to female superheroes, but I think Jennifer needs to be at the top of that list really. She took something that Bruce Banner has struggled to cope and control for decades of his comic book history and made her Hulk identity her own, instead of constantly seeing it as a curse that needed to be "cured". A lot of her modern narratives seem to have her juggling a mixture of her original series combined with the comical nature of her Sensational run with mixed results, such as her "Ally McShulkie" phase that most fans refer to her third solo series.
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| From Avengers Vol. 3, #487-490 - "The Search for She-Hulk". |
I personally went out of my way to check out and purchase the four-part "Search for She-Hulk" mini-series in Avengers at the time where an overexposure to radiation caused her Savage transformations to pop up again out of her control. That didn't get enough praise for She-Hulk taking on all of the Avengers on her own during that ordeal. To this day, I think that's the closest we're going to get to World War She-Hulk... That is unless her current "power-up" from the Celestials in the current run of Avengers comics ends up making her a bigger threat than Bruce is.
I think her PTSD era following Civil War II was the worst of these runs though as that book didn't seem to find it's voice until it was close to being cancelled, where it fell into borderline Sensational era humor with Hellcat in tow for most issues.
To be fair though, I thought the book did a great job portraying and shedding light on the effects of PTSD on one psyche after a traumatic experience, but ultimately, I think the book suffered from the fact that we didn't see a single Hulk Out from Jennifer until about 3-4 issues in. Her grey, scarred She-Hulk appearance was pretty controversial at the time (even more so than her current look) and became the talk of the town even more when the book took a nosedive in sales. I'll admit that I haven't read much of her current run as part of the current Avengers roster, but I thought it was a massive step backwards to remove her "flirty" nature and make her musclebound brute comparable to her cousin in early years of Marvel Comics' continuity.
What I found to be ironic was that these changes were made since there were complaints from the SJWs that she was overly sexualized over the years, but Marvel goes right back to sexualizing her brutish appearance in stories too in one issue that explores Jennifer's own opinion on her current Hulk form in comparison to her previous appearance(s), only to have her seen as mere eye candy for the villain of the week. Yeah, it just seems like Marvel doesn't know what they want from this character - at least currently. I have to agree with one of my fellow bloggers on this matter with his in-depth thoughts on her current adventures here.
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| She-Hulk fan art by The Manic. |
I wouldn't be doing this piece justice if I didn't give a shout out to some of my readers and friends over on DeviantArt, especially those who have kept my fandom of the character alive for the past two decades. I think all of us in that corner of the woods would blame our fandom holding strong namely from the artwork of The Manic, who I stumbled upon from the old Yahoo! Groups days from Shadowlurker's She-Hulk fan site before Shadowlurker's untimely demise. In the years that followed, the Manic became the definitive "transformation" specialist of that genre, even though he has his own wealth of original characters (ranging from a wealth of SFW to NSFW content floating around the Internet just a fair warning...), his specialty has always been portraying She-Hulk's transformations, namely from her Savage She-Hulk era.
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| She-Hulk fan art by Tom Burgos. |
Another noteworthy fan artist to check out is Tom Burgos' She-Hulk related work. He's not as famous as The Manic, but his work of Shulkie is definitely worth a look too if you're a fan of the character.
Whether it be from comics, video games, her various appearances in cartoons, and even various fan art and fan-fictions scattered across the Internet over the years, I'm going to always find something to love about our favorite Jade Giantess.
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